Fantasy Basketball Fallers at Center - 2020-21 Season Review

October 5, 2021

Antonio Losada looks at fantasy basketball fallers at the Center position from the 2020-21 NBA season who you should be wary of for the upcoming 2021-22 campaign based on their decline in performance.

We're this close to the regular season, and while there is a ton of hype about the incoming rookies (check out all of our NBA Draft analysis here) we still need to reflect on the 2020-2021 season and what happened just a few months back in time. We had another short NBA offseason this year and it's time to do some evaluation on another unique season as we prepare for the 2022 campaign.

We have nearly a full season of data for most players to crunch now. It's time to reflect on the 2020-21 season to see who were our "risers" and "fallers" in the rankings. A lot of young players are naturally going to be on the rise, while some older hoopers will definitely be part of the season fallers.

In this article, I will feature some of the players labeled as Centers who took the biggest drops in their output so you can properly assess their value entering the 2022 draft season as it heats up with tipoff-week approaching.

Fantasy Basketball Fallers - Centers

Andre Drummond, C - Cleveland Cavaliers/Los Angeles Lakers (now Philadelphia 76ers)

2020 - 18th-best Overall
2021 - 86th

It's already been nine years in the NBA for Dr. Dre. That's more than an ample sample of games to know what he can and can't do on a basketball court: he can definitely play fantasy basketball, but he's a real basketball afterthought. Well, maybe that's stretching things a bit too much, but you know what I mean. At the end of the day, fantasy basketball is about the digits in a statistical sheet and this man can do it on all cats. Or can he?

Drummond was fantastic for the Cavs until he was not (because they sat him) and ultimately got cut, then signed by the title-chasing Lakers. Even in a season in which he played (and started) all 46 games he was part of, Dru's outcomes weren't otherworldly. His PPG went from 17.7 in 2020 to 14.9 in 2021. The rebounds from 15.2 to 12. And the same drops happened in his assists, steals, and blocks tallies.

As if his overall fall wasn't enough, it looked like Los Angeles did him no favors at all. Dre was putting up a 17-13-2-1-1 line as a Cav and then proceeded to log daily 12-10-1-1-1 lines with the Lake Show for 21 stupid games while clogging the paint and blocking AD/LBJ for making runs toward the rim. As is the case with multiple fallers at the position, Dru didn't help his future FA deal with those numbers. But you know how this man works: give him minutes and an actual prominent, leading role, and he'll thrive in fantasy leagues.

Montrezl Harrell, C - Los Angeles Lakers (now Washington Wizards)

2020 - 45th
2021 - 84th

Ah, our old friends from LA with another player on the list... If at least they'd have been the Clips, though. Harrell was fantastic in 2020 while playing for the poorer neighbors before crossing the street and signing with the posh Lakers. Quite the move, right? Wrong. Somehow, even while starting only two games in 2020, Harrell was still able to finish the year inside the fantasy top-50 league-wide. This past season, though? A borderline top-85 finish in which he couldn't get close to replicate his 2020 performance levels.

Harrell's FPPG went down from 32.9 in 2020 (27.8 MPG off the pine) to just 25.1 in 2021 (22.9 MPG). The dropdown was substantial, and although the minutes went down while donning the golden threads we should remember that fantasy is based on volume and that we should chase players with ample chances of putting up numbers more than über-efficient guys that can flop--pretty much your 2020-to-2021 Harrell, that is.

In Harrell's defense, though, it can be said that he was even better than his 2020 version. That wasn't enough for fantasy GMs, though, as his upside was cut a lot by his shorter runs. He shot better from the floor and from the free-throw line, didn't lose too much in any particular cat except points, but was kind of the same player from two years ago. That means that Harrell is what he is, and if he keeps playing the same role and minutes--or even fewer, which is not out of the equation--he'll be a fantasy afterthought.

Steven Adams, C - Oklahoma City Thunder (now Memphis Grizzlies)

2020 - 73rd
2021 - 130th

Talk about a change of environment and teammates affecting a player, folks. Adams has not been one of the best big men out there at any point in his career, but he's always fallen on the positive-value side of things. Until last season, that is. Adams was collateral damage from the Jrue Holiday-to-Milwaukee trade back in November that involved a billion draft picks and four franchises (OKC, MIL, NOLA, and DEN), and found himself playing for the Zion-led Pels.

The most-used lineup by the Pelicans last season logged 610 minutes together compared to the second-most used one's 125. It was comprised of Adams, Lonzo Ball, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson. And obviously, it didn't help Adams at all, who had to deal with his own teammate bullying opponents in the paint to historical extents, cutting Adams' upside a lot. Adams' per-minute numbers went down all across the board. The center finished below 10 PP36M for the first time since his rookie season and also saw a downtick in the rebounds (-1.0), assists (-0.6), and blocks (-0.5) categories. The minutes were there, he played (and started) 58 games, but his usage cratered from an already low 17.3% in 2020 to a measly 11.7% in 2021.

In the first trade on the draft week, the Grizzlies traded Jonas Valanciunas to New Orleans in exchange for picks, Eric Bledsoe and Adams (we'll see how that develops). While JoVa should retain his value as he can stretch the floor playing alongside Zion, this move doesn't look like a vast improvement for Adams' upside come next season.

Hassan Whiteside, C - Sacramento Kings (now Utah Jazz)

2020 - 14th
2021 - 294th

The minute Whiteside flipped Portland for Sacto he ruined his upside. And he probably knew about it, same as the Kings as they only offered him a low one-year deal that would see him become an FA once more this summer. The difference from 2020 to the last season's outing from Hassan is staggering to say the least: from top-15 player to almost missing the top-300 cut. Yikes.

Truth is, Hassan Whiteside went from playing 67 games in Portland to just 36 in Sacramento while dropping his per-game minutes from 30 MPG to half that with 15.2 MPG over the 2020 season. And to make matters worse, he was part of starting lineups just four times throughout the whole season.

Not too promising is the fact that Whiteside couldn't improve his per-minute numbers, as he scored barely a point more than a year ago while dropping two full boards (from 16.2 to 14.2 per 36 minutes). The assists, steals, blocks, and turnovers were pretty much the same, but keep in mind he faced softer competition coming off the pine in Sacto, which doesn't bode too well for him going forward. Whiteside is a biggie boy, and biggie boys are always neat. But if he's stuck into the rotation as part of another second unit in 2022 then we'd be fading him without hesitation.

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